Seattle made mistakes. The Commanders made them pay.

There are plenty of reasons to be careful about what the Commanders' 33-31 win over Seattle on Sunday actually means. The Seahawks racked up more yards than the Commanders 437-258, picked up 28 first downs to the Commanders' 17 and averaged 6.8 yards per play compared with Washington's 4.0. Sam Darnold threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns and Seattle still had a chance to win late despite turning the football over three times. If you're looking for evidence that Washington suddenly solved all of its problems Sunday afternoon, there isn't much of it in those numbers.

Turnovers are an obvious place to start when explaining how Washington won. Seattle gave the ball away three times, Washington never turned it over and teams that lose the turnover battle by that margin usually have a hard time winning. But there was another part of that equation that mattered just as much: what Washington did after getting the football.

The first turnover came on Seattle's opening possession, when rookie linebacker Sonny Styles forced a fumble from Seahawks running back Jadarian Price and Washington recovered at the Seahawks' 21-yard line. Marcus Mariota and the offense had been handed a short field and four plays later Mariota found Rachaad White for a six-yard touchdown and an early 7-0 lead.

Washington's second takeaway came in the third quarter when a Darnold pass deflected off Tim Settle's helmet and rookie Sonny Styles came down with the interception. This time the Commanders took over at the Seattle 43-yard line and Mariota eventually found Terry McLaurin for a 30-yard touchdown that gave Washington a 24-10 lead.

The third turnover didn't even require the Commanders offense; Seattle had erased a 14-point deficit and tied the game at 24 before a Washington field goal made it 27-24. The Seahawks were trying to answer when Kain Medrano stepped in front of a Darnold pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. A celebration penalty pushed the extra-point attempt back and Washington missed the kick, but the pick-six still gave the Commanders the breathing room they ultimately needed in a game they won by two.

That's 20 points off three Seattle turnovers, with the missed extra point keeping the total from being 21. The Seahawks made the mistakes, but Washington cashed them in for a touchdown every time.

That's what made the turnovers so valuable. A takeaway creates an opportunity, but it doesn't guarantee points. An offense can take over deep in opposing territory and settle for a field goal or come away with nothing. Washington got three chances Sunday and made nearly the maximum possible use of all three.

The comparison with last season makes Sunday's performance even more striking. Washington scored just 29 points off takeaways during the entire 17-game 2025 regular season. The Commanders produced 20 on Sunday alone, nearly 69 percent of last year's total in a single afternoon. It was also the first time Washington had scored at least 20 points off turnovers in a game since Week 17 of the 2005 season.

That doesn't mean Washington can count on forcing three turnovers every week. The Commanders went through the first two games of the season without creating one and tipped passes or loose footballs won't always end up in Washington's hands. But there is at least some reason to think Sunday's takeaways were connected to something the defense had been emphasizing.

Washington spent the week leading up to the game talking about its failure to force a turnover and Styles said afterward that attacking the football had been a major point of emphasis against Seattle. Styles seemed to take that emphasis to heart as he forced the first takeaway when he punched the ball loose from Price, then came down with the deflected Darnold pass for the second. Medrano said Styles also made the pre-snap check that helped put him in position for the fourth-quarter pick-six, giving Styles a hand in all three Seattle turnovers. One game isn't enough to know whether that will become a regular part of Washington's defense, but it was the first time this season that the emphasis showed up in the results.

Seattle was better by many of the statistics normally used to evaluate a football game. Washington gave up 437 yards and 31 points and isn't going to win many games if it needs three takeaways to offset that kind of defensive performance. But on Sunday, the Commanders were better when the biggest opportunities presented themselves.

For a team playing without Jayden Daniels, Laremy Tunsil and several other starters, that was enough to pull off a win Washington badly needed. It doesn't tell us what kind of team the Commanders will be over the next 14 games, but it tells us what they were Sunday: a team that made Seattle pay every time it gave them the chance.